Quality Function

Deployment
 Quality Function Deployment
 Is a structured method that is intended to transmit
and translate customer requirements, that is, the
Voice of the Customer

 through each stage of the product development and

production process, that is, through the product
realization cycle.
 These requirements are the collection of customer
needs, including all satisfiers, exciters/delighters, and
dissatisfiers.
 When is QFD Appropriate?
 Poor communications and expectations get lost in
the complexity of product development.
 Lack of structure or logic to the allocation of
product development resources.
 Lack of efficient and / or effective product /
process development teamwork.
 Extended development time caused by
excessive redesign, problem solving, or fire
fighting.
Return on Investment by
Using QFD
Companies using QFD to reflect "The Voice of
the Customer" in defining quality have a
advantage because there is/are:
competitive
1. Fewer and Earlier Design Changes
2. Fewer Start-up Problems
3. Shorter Development Time
4. Lower Start-up Costs
5. Warranty Cost Reductions
6. Knowledge Transfer to the Next Product
7. Customer Satisfaction
 Quality Function Deployment’s
House of Quality Correlation 6
Matrix

3
Design
Attributes

The

Importance Rankings
2 5
1
Customer Relationships Customer

House Needs
4
between
Customer Needs
Perceptions

of
and
Design Attributes

Quality 7
Costs/Feasibility
 Establishes the Flowdown
 Relates WHAT'S & HOW'S 8

 Ranks The Importance Engineering Measures

 The House of Quality
 Key Elements
 Informational Elements

Two Types of Elements in Each House

 Manufacturing Software Service
QFD Flowdown
Environment Environment Environment

Levels Of Granularity Customer Wants Customer Wants

Customer Wants

Technical Requirements Product Functionality Service Requirements

Part Characteristics System Characteristics Service Processes

Manufacturing Process Design Alternatives Process Controls

Production Requirements
Flowdown Relates
The Houses To
Each Other
 Building the House of Quality
1. Identify Customer Attributes
2. Identify Design Attributes / Requirements
3. Relate the customer attributes to the design attributes.
4. Conduct an Evaluation of Competing Products.
5. Evaluate Design Attributes and Develop Targets.
6. Determine which Design Attributes to Deploy in the
Remainder of the Process.
 1. Identify Customer Attributes
 These are product or service requirements IN THE CUSTOMER’S TERMS.
• Market Research;
• Surveys;
• Focus Groups.
 “What does the customer expect from the product?”
 “Why does the customer buy the product?”
 Salespeople and Technicians can be important sources of information –
both in terms of these two questions and in terms of product failure
and repair.
 Often these are expanded into Secondary and Tertiary Needs /
Requirements.
“Whats”
What Does The Customer want
Customer Needs

Need 1
Need 2
Key Elements -

Need 3 ts
Needh4
a
W5
Need
Need 6
Need 7

Voice of
the
Customer
 Customer Requirements
 How Important Are The
What’s TO THE CUSTOMER
 Customer Ranking of their
Needs
Need 1 5
Key Elements:

Need 2 5 er e
Need 3 m
3sto nc
u ta
Need 4 C 4por
Need 5 Im2
Need 6 4
Need 7 1

Voice of
the
Customer
 2. Identify Design Attributes.
 Design Attributes are Expressed in the Language of the
Designer / Engineer and Represent the TECHNICAL
Characteristics (Attributes) that must be Deployed
throughout the DESIGN, MANUFACTURING, and
SERVICE PROCESSES.
 These must be MEASURABLE since the Output will be
Controlled and Compared to Objective Targets.
 The ROOF of the HOUSE OF QUALITY shows,
symbolically, the Interrelationships between Design
Attributes.
  How Do You Satisfy the Customer What’s
 Product Requirements
 Translation For Action
 X’s
Key Elements -

3
4
5
HOW 2

HOW 7
HOW 1

HOW 6
W
Hows
“How’s”
W W

H
O O
Need 1 5 O
Need 2 5
Need 3 3
WHAT'S HOW'S Need 4 4
Need 5 2
Need 6 4
Need 7 1

Satisfy the Customer

Needs
 Correlation
 Impact Of The How’s On Each Other
Matrix

Correlation Matrix
Strong Positive
Positive

Information –
Negative

HOW 1

HOW 3

HOW 5
HOW 6
HOW 2

HOW 4

HOW 7
Strong
Negative
Need 1 5 H L L M 65
Need 2 5 H 45
Need 3 3 M M L 21
Need 4 4 H 36
Need 5 2 L M 8
Need 6 4 M L H 52
Need 7 1 L M 4

40 psi
3 mils

8 atm

1 mm
12 in.
3 lbs

3
57 41 48 13 50 6
21

Conflict
Resolutio
3.Relating Customer & Design Attributes

 Symbolically we determine whether there is NO relationship, a WEAK

one, MODERATE one, or STRONG relationship between each Customer
Attribute and each Design Attribute.
 The PURPOSE it to determine whether the final Design Attributes
adequately cover Customer Attributes.
 LACK of a strong relationship between A customer attribute and any
design attribute shows that the attribute is not adequately addressed or
that the final product will have difficulty in meeting the expressed
customer need.
 Similarly, if a design attribute DOES NOT affect any customer attribute,
then it may be redundant or the designers may have missed some
important customer attribute.
  Strength of the Interrelation
Between the What’s and the
Relationship
Key Elements:

How’s
 H Strong 9
 M Medium 3
1

HOW 1
HOW 2
HOW 3
HOW 4

HOW 6
HOW 7
HOW 5
 L Weak

Need 1 5 H L L M
Need 2 5 H
Need 3 3 M shiM
p L
n
Need 4 4 H latio
R e
Need 5 2 L M
Need 6 4 M L H
Need 7 1 L M

Untangling
The Web
 4. Add Market Evaluation & Key Selling Points
 This step includes identifying importance ratings for each customer
attribute AND evaluating existing products / services for each of the
attributes.
 Customer importance ratings represent the areas of greatest interest
and highest expectations AS EXPRESSED BY THE CUSTOMER.
 Competitive evaluation helps to highlight the absolute strengths and
weaknesses in competing products.
 This step enables designers to seek opportunities for improvement
and links QFD to a company’s strategic vision and allows priorities
to be set in the design process.
 5. Evaluate Design Attributes of Competitive
Products & Set Targets.
 This is USUALLY accomplished through in-house testing and then
translated into MEASURABLE TERMS.
 The evaluations are compared with the competitive evaluation of
customer attributes to determine inconsistency between customer
evaluations and technical evaluations.
 For example, if a competing product is found to best satisfy a customer
attribute, but the evaluation of the related design attribute indicates
 otherwise, then EITHER the measures used are faulty, OR else the
product has an image difference that is affecting customer
perceptions.
 On the basis of customer importance ratings and existing product
strengths and weaknesses, TARGETS and DIRECTIONS for each design
attribute are set.
Information: How Much
 Target Values for the
How’s


HOW 1
HOW 2
HOW 3
HOW 4

HOW 6
HOW 7
HOW 5
Note the Units

Need 1 5 H L L M 65
Need 2 5 H 45
Need 3 3 M M L 21
Need 4 4 H 36
Need 5 2 L M 8
Need 6 4 M L H 52
Need 7 1 L M 4
m

40 psi
3 mils
mHow Much

8 atm
12 in.
3 lbs
1

3
57 41 48 13 50 6 21

Consistent Comparison
 Target Direction  Information
 On The
More Is Better re c t ion
t Di
HOW'S
 Less Is Better arge

HOW 1
HOW 2
HOW 3
HOW 4

HOW 6
HOW 7
HOW 5
T
Information :

 Specific Amount
Need 1 5 H L L M 65
Need 2 5 H 45
Need 3 3 M M L 21
Need 4 4 H 36
Need 5 2 L M 8
Need 6 4 M L H 52
Need 7 1 L M 4

57 41 48 13 50 6 21

The Best
Direction
6. Select Design Attributes to be Deployed in the
Remainder of the Process

 This means identifying the design attributes that:

• have a strong relationship to customer needs,
• have poor competitive performance,
• or are strong selling points.
 These attributes will need to be DEPLOYED or TRANSLATED
into the language of each function in the design and
production process so that proper actions and controls are
taken to ensure that the voice of the customer is maintained.
 Those attributes not identified as critical do not need such
rigorous attention.
Technical Importance  Which How’s are Key
 Where Should The Focus Lie

HOW 1
HOW 2

HOW 4
HOW 5
HOW 6
HOW 7
HOW 3
 “CI” = “Customer Importance”
Key Elements:

 “Strength” is measured on a 9, 3,
1, 0
Scale
Need 1 CI 45 5 5 15
Need 2 5 45
Need 3 3 9 9 3
Need 4 4 36
Need 5 2 2 6
Need 6 4 12 4 36 e
Need 7 1 1 tanc
M
r
po
lIm
ica
n
57 ch 13 50
41 e48 6 21
TI =  (column
CI *Strength) T

Ranking The
HOW'S
  Are All The How’s
Key Elements :
Completeness Captured

HOW 1

HOW 3
HOW 4
HOW 5
HOW 6
HOW 2

HOW 7
 Is A What Really A
How
Need 1 C H L L M 65
Need 2 5I H 45
Need 3 3 M M L 21eria
r it
Need 4 4 H s C 36
Need 5 2 L nesM 8
e
let
Need 6 4 M L H
m p 52
Need 7 1 L Co M 4

CC =  (CIrow*Strength)
57 41 48 13 50 6 21

Have We
Captured
the HOW'S
 Using the House of Quality
The voice of the customer MUST be carried THROUGHOUT the
production process.
Three other “houses of quality” are used to do this and, together
with the first, these carry the customer’s voice from its initial
expression, through design attributes, on to component
attributes, to process operations, and eventually to a quality
control and improvement plans.
In Japan, all four are used.
The tendency in the West is to use only the first one or two.
 1 Design Attributes
Attributes
Customer

2
Attributes Component Attributes
Design

3Component Process Operations

Attributes

4 Quality Control Plan

Operations
Process
The How’s at One Level Become
the
What’s at the Next Level
 The Cascading Voice of the Customer

HOWS NOTES:
“Design Attributes” are also called “Functional Requirements”
“Component Attributes” are also called “Part Characteristics”
WHATS

“Process Operations” are also called “Manufacturing

Processes” and the “Quality Control Plan” refers to “Key
Process Variables.

Th
e
Fo
ur Y
H
ou Critical to Quality
se Characteristics
so (CTQs)
fQ
ua Key Manufacturing
lit Processes
y
X
Key Process Variables
 Common QFD Pitfalls

 QFD On Everything
 Set the “Right” Granularity
 Don’t Apply To Every Last Project
 Inadequate Priorities
 Lack of Teamwork
 Wrong Participants
 Lack of Team Skills
 Lack of Support or Commitment
 Too Much “Chart Focus”
 “Hurry up and Get Done”
 Failure to Integrate and Implement QFD
  Review Current Status
 At Least Quarterly Monthly
 on 1 Yr Project Weekly on
 Small Projects

65
45
21
36
8
52
4
HOW 1
HOW 2
HOW 3
HOW 4
HOW 5
HOW 6

Need 1 5 H L L HOW 7
M 65
Need 2 5 H 45
Need 3 3 M M L 21
Need 4 4 H 36
Need 5
Need 6
2
4 M
L
L H
M
52
8
The “Static” QFD
Need 7 1 L M 4
40 psi
3 mils

1 mm
8 atm
12 in.
3 lbs

57 41 48 13 50 6
21
 Points to Remember
 The process may look simple, but requires effort.
 Many entries look obvious—after they’re written down.
 If there are NO “tough spots” the first time: It Probably
Isn’t Being Done Rig Focus on the
end-user customer.
 Charts are not the objective. Charts are the
means for the objective.
achieving
Find reasons to succeed, not excuses for failure.
Remember to follow-up afterward